Chernyi Cooperative Coffee Roasters — Restaurant in City of Belgrade

A MEDIOCRE experience with a FASCINATING vibe! As a coffee addicted expat living in Belgrade since 2008 now splitting my time between here and Koh Phangan, Thailand, I'm always on the lookout for a great coffee place I can hit up when I wake up at 7AM as this is my most productive time of day. I saw they were open at 7AM and a block away from my place, so it was worth a shot. I went in and a man of apparently African descent greeted me and explained the difference between Espresso (250RSD) and Espresso Special (300RSD) was that you get to choose your beans. I decided to try the default beans, which he said were from Ethiopia. I asked for the espresso to be long. The service was not friendly or unfriendly, but lacking that typical Belgrade presence and warmth if you know what I mean. I sat down on the side of the machine and watch him make it. Instead of running the espresso long, he added water, meaning it was actually like an Americano and not a long espresso. It's ok, I like Americano to, but didn't see it on the menu.

Anyways, the seating was very uncomfortable, with no cushions or anything, there were rules about which uncomfortable seating I could use my laptop on and the ones specifically designated for laptop looked very uncomfortable. I'm sure this is part of their concept.

So the coffee was not to my liking. The dose of caffeine was small and the quality of the coffee simply mediocre, with a strong acidic taste. I expected a place that calls themselves "coffee roasters" to have a nicer espresso, really.

Unhappy with the dose of caffeine and the comfort of the seating, I guzzled the espresso down and left and walked 3 blocks up to the Starbucks on Raijiceva where I am sitting now. I ordered a Venti Americano for (340RSD) which has 4 shots of espresso in it, a smooth flavor and drinkability and I am now sitting on a soft cushion using my laptop freely.

I understand small cafe owners might be triggered by your being compared to Starbucks, but for me you must understand my points about dosage and quality expectations. I can go to any Starbucks in the world and order a Venti Americano and know I will get a standardly decent cup of coffee to satisfy my addiction and get working on my laptop. It's not the best coffee, but it's good and guaranteed.

On Koh Phangan in Thailand we don't have Starbucks but I'm lucky to have a Cafe, Australian inspired Balance Specialty Coffee that really gets it right in all aspects where I go most mornings at 7AM.

I love supporting small cafes that do it right but in this case my needs for 1) a bunch of caffeine AND 2) a nice place to sit and work at 7AM were not met.

I would go back some other time as I like to go to cafes to socialize and later in the date usually order something else but coffee, but it seems they have only coffee here. I also tried another place across the street called SLOJ and the cafe experience there was much better, although they also have anti-laptop policies, which when I'm going to socialize are fine with me.

I'll give the place some points though, the atmosphere is fresh for Belgrade with the variety of staff working there and the vibe of the music they were playing. I might be back.

I hope this feedback helps the owners understand why someone would choose Starbucks...

Came here last year when I was in Belgrade it it was amazing. The staff was knowledgeable and coffee was great. Came back to Belgrade this year and have been a few times and it’s been very hit or miss. Maybe only one or two of the baristas can pull a decent coffee. The last straw though was that I was sitting in an area that was labeled as “no laptop”. The area was quite empty and there were at least 2 other people using laptops in this area so I figured I’d go ahead and use mine too to take care of some things. An employee walked past two other people using laptops to only tell me that I can’t use my laptop and left without talking to the other people. That to me is unacceptable. If that is the rule you can tell everyone. I understand the reason for not wanting laptops especially if the cafe is full you don’t want someone taking up a table for too long where new people coming can’t sit. However there were many tables open and available and I was prepared to leave if it got full to allow non laptop users to sit and relax. It’s unfortunate that this place has gone down in quality so much. The only thing they had going for them was the vibe but seems like that has been...

For the price of the coffee here, you would expect to at least get it in a cup. We ordered two cappuccinos, but they were made in these coffee-to-go cups and left on the counter without anything being said. After a few minutes, they told us that our order was ready. We responded that we hadn’t ordered coffee to go, to which they replied that they had no more cups and had to serve the coffee like this. That wouldn’t be such a big issue if they had said something right away, but the staff served the coffee this way without saying anything. The staff speaks very little or no Serbian, which shouldn’t happen in a place located in the city center. No local resident wants to come in and be served in a foreign language, regardless of which language it is or the level of proficiency. The atmosphere is very cold, the chairs are uncomfortable, and the entire self-service concept is unsustainable in such a small space like this, as large crowds form at the counter...